


The Museums of Akafar

by LyraLollygagger



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alien Planet, Beating, Doctor Whump, Gen, Museums, Rescue, Stabbing, Torture, Whump, Whump Exchange
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-27
Updated: 2017-12-27
Packaged: 2019-02-22 12:27:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13166910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LyraLollygagger/pseuds/LyraLollygagger
Summary: The people of Akafar liked to collect things – only that was putting it mildly.





	The Museums of Akafar

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Doctor_Whom](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Doctor_Whom/gifts).



> Written as a Christmas gift for @the-whumpy-fangirl as part of the 2017 Winter Whumperland challenge on tumblr.
> 
> Original prompt: Character A has been captured by the bad guys, and Character B (support) has to watch them get tortured for a vital piece of information.

The people of Akafar liked to collect things – only that was putting it mildly.

Their museums were known throughout the galaxy as some of the most extensive. They had books of languages, ancient and modern instruments, candy, perfumes, ice cream flavors… There was almost nothing they didn't have, and not just from their own civilization; a very large percentage of their collections also came from other planetary civilizations.

The Doctor had brought Martha to see Akafar’s color exhibit.

"Doctor, this is _incredible!"_ Martha exclaimed. She was awestruck. There were so many shades of different colors she was familiar with, but what amazed Martha most was the ones she had never seen before. "These colors don't even exist on Earth!"

The Doctor was beaming. "Take a look at this one." He pointed to one on a palette marked Phrygia. "We have something similar on Gallifrey, but not as intense."

Martha's expression was pure astonishment. "I think my brain might be exploding."

The Doctor laughed. The next part of the exhibit caught his eye. "Oh look! Blues!"

There were so many shades of just the one color: dark, light, grey, green... There were some hues that Martha had no idea how to describe, other than – well – it was blue!

A mischievous thought came to her, and she asked, "Which one do you think is TARDIS Blue?"

That definitely caught his interest. He pulled his glasses out of his breast pocket, put them on, and peered at the stunning palette in front of him. “Well – “

"Excuse me, but… what's a Tardis?"

Martha and the Doctor both turned around to find an Akafarian man. He was older in years, for Akafarians, and wore the Museum's insignia on his robe.

He was also waiting for an answer, and the Doctor was more than happy to give him one.

"It's a spaceship! – well – _my_ spaceship. From the planet Gallifrey. It's an older model, actually – I got it from a museum! They weren't using it anyway…"

A disturbing thought came to Martha as she watched the Akafarian's expression slowly change from curiosity to longing. No, not just longing: yearning – covetousness, even – _greed._

"Doctor…"

"Time and Relative Dimension In Space…" He kept going, ignoring her.

_"Doctor…"_

He was talking about how large it was, where it could travel, _when_ it could travel. Not even she knew about all the things the TARDIS could do, and here he was just telling this stranger like it was the most normal thing in the world!

"DOCTOR!"

Whatever was going on, he snapped out of it and turned to look at her. He blinked a couple of times. "What?" He sounded confused.

"Doctor, what's going – "

He turned back to the Akafarian. "What did you do to me?" He sounded terrified. "What do you want?"

The man smiled, and with a malicious glint in his eyes, whispered, "Your TARDIS."

 

* * *

 

They had ended up running away after that. They exited the museum before security could overtake them, but they knew it wouldn't be long until more security personnel caught up, so they kept running.

"I should've known!" he spoke as they ran. "There's no way they could have acquired so much without having abilities. Mind control, or… Telepathy? It was like he was asking me questions in my mind!"

"Doctor…" It was hard to talk and run at the same time without feeling winded, at least for her. He wasn't winded, and Martha reasoned it was because he had two hearts instead of one like she did. "What do you think they'll do… if they catch us?"

The TARDIS appeared in the distance where they had left her earlier that day.

He smiled. "I'm not planning to stick around long enough to find out. Are you?"

They were within sprinting distance when Akafarian security started to descend upon them.

"Go, go!" she heard the Doctor shout, and she did. Dashing up to and through the doors, she figured she must've swung the doors open too hard; because instead of coming through the doors on her tail, the doors swung shut right behind her.

"No!" she cried. She immediately turned back to open the door for him, but it wouldn't budge. "No, no, no, no…"

She heard shouts from outside. Someone pounded on the door and demanded it opened. She stepped back. She was safe in here, they couldn't get in, but the Doctor…

She turned and hurried over to the console. She didn't know how to fly the TARDIS, but the Doctor had taught her how to operate a few systems before they had hidden in 1913 from The Family. She pulled up the display monitor so she could see what was going on outside.

It was swarming with Akafarians, and the Doctor lay on the ground, caught. She watched as two men each took an arm and helped him up. His left food was injured and he wasn't putting weight on it, so the two men supported him as they led him to their vehicle. While running he must've tripped before he could reach the TARDIS.

The view started to shift, and she realized the TARDIS was being moved.

 

* * *

 

The TARDIS was moved to a warehouse. There were planes, spaceships, funny looking transportation vehicles, and crates of what she guessed were vehicle parts. Apparently the TARDIS was to be added to their vehicle collection.

They tried different things to get the doors open: skeleton keys, lock picking, an axe, a sledgehammer, a drill, a chain and pulley system… Nothing worked. The TARDIS’ doors remained closed.

Martha sat on the jump seat and watched on the display monitor while this all took place. What else could she do? She couldn’t open the door for fear someone was watching and waiting for her to do that very thing. So she just watched and waited, hoping for the right opportunity to do… something. Should she leave the TARDIS to find the Doctor? Or, would he find a way to cleverly escape and expect her to be waiting for him?

She got an answer soon enough, but not the one she expected. The warehouse doors eventually opened up to let the same car in that had taken the Doctor away earlier. The Doctor was taken out of the car and deposited in a chair. His hands had been bound behind him. He looked a little dazed.

A menacing looking Akafarian man approached the Doctor. “How do you open the doors?” he asked.

The Doctor cleared his throat. “Interesting you should ask that. You see, there’s a sign: it says _‘PULL_ TO OPEN…’”

The man struck him in the face – hard. The Doctor wasn’t prepared for it and hit the floor, landing on his left shoulder.

“Ow… when, actually, you should _push._ Come on! Let me at least finish the sentence!”

The man was obviously getting impatient. “We’ve tried that. Nothing worked.”

“Did you say ‘Please?’”

He got kicked in the stomach for that one.

He groaned. “Open sesame?”

“Open what?”

“Never mind.” The Doctor tensed up. “Okay, I’m ready.”

He got kicked in the stomach again.

“You idiot!” Martha yelled at the screen. “This isn’t a game! Stop antagonizing him!” She went to the doors and tried them again. They still wouldn’t open for her. She slammed her fist against the door in frustration.

The man with the Doctor noticed the TARDIS doors shake. “Your friend in there doesn’t want you to get hurt, it seems. If you won’t tell me anything, maybe she will, if I can draw her out.”

A kicking fest started up. The Time Lord was kicked in the legs, which really smarted. The blows to his stomach left him gasping for breath, and he was sure his kidneys were being bruised. The blows to his head left him seeing stars.

 

* * *

 

Martha felt so helpless. She could do nothing but watch. She wanted to try the door again, but she knew it would be fruitless at this point, and her reacting again was exactly what the Doctor’s torturer wanted. She could at least hold back that satisfaction, and hopefully that would convince the guy to stop. There were other Akafarians in the warehouse that were in a position to do something, but none of them did. They saw what was happening, but nobody seemed to care.

The Doctor’s face was set in a grimace by the time the man did stop. His eyes were closed and his breathing was fast. Martha knew he was in pain.

“There is no way to force her to open the doors,” the Doctor spoke up, somewhat breathless. He rested his head against the ground, exhausted. “Either she’ll open them for you or she won’t. She’s very moody like that.”

The guard looked puzzled by this. “Your friend?”

“No,” he answered. “My TARDIS.” He smiled then. There were specks of blood on his teeth. “She can hear you, but she doesn’t always do what she’s told. Asking nicely does help, but if she doesn’t like you, then it’s pointless. And you, _my friend_ , need to learn how to talk with her.”

Martha heard the word stress in his voice: _my friend,_ he said. Learn to talk with her? But he just said it was pointless if the TARDIS didn’t like you, and it was obvious that the ship had been showing some strong dislike to these people.

Did he mean that last sentence for her? The guard had called Martha the Doctor's friend. Did the Doctor want her to talk with the TARDIS?

“Hello, can you here me?” she asked the time machine. “I don't know what to do.”

A telephone number appeared on the screen in front of her. _I think I know what to do,_ thought Martha as she told the TARDIS to dial the number.

 

* * *

 

The Doctor’s answers didn’t make sense to the Akafarian. He thought the Time Lord deserved to be punished more, and so the beatings continued. Blessedly, they stopped again when the overhead intercom system came to life.

"Code Black in Warehouse 10… Please evacuate Warehouse 10… This is not a drill…"

Warehouse 10 just so happened to be the vehicle warehouse; and, as instructed over the intercom system, All Akafarians were evacuating the warehouse.

All except for one.

The Doctor’s torturer was the only one left. Martha waited by the doors, still watching the monitor, waiting for an opportunity to move. She thought maybe she could take out the one man if she had to, but she felt the odds were against her with this particular guy.

The man loomed over the Doctor, mad now. “We’re not done, but I have to go check on something. This is so you'll stay put.” And with that he pulled out a short bladed knife.

Martha saw light reflecting off the knife. She gasped as she realized what was unfolding in front of her.

The Doctor saw the knife, too. It was coming down fast toward his leg, and he tried to twist away in an attempt at avoidance, but it didn’t happen. Instead of landing straight down in the center of his thigh, his twisting away caused it to land in the outer side of his right thigh. The Doctor screamed in pain as the knife sunk down and was then torn out of his flesh.

Satisfied that the Time Lord couldn’t escape now that he was writhing on the floor in pain, the man approached the doors of the TARDIS intending to place a lock on the doors so Martha couldn’t get out; but Martha saw the man approaching and was ready for him. As soon as he was within range, Martha quickly opened the door and clubbed him on the head with a mallet she had found under the TARDIS’ console.

The man fell down, unconscious.

Martha stepped out of the TARDIS, nudged the downed man out of her path, and advanced on the Doctor quickly. “Doctor, can you hear me?” She bent down to get a better visual assessment of him. He was clutching his leg, and moisture was forming at his closed eyes, but he nodded his head in answer to her.

“Okay. Doctor, I’m sorry, but I have to move you,” she told him. She surveyed the warehouse again for any approaching danger. “Once I get you into the TARDIS, then I can get a better look at your wound. Just keep pressure on there like you’re doing.”

He nodded again in response. She quickly undid his bounds, grabbed him under his arms and dragged him to safety aboard the TARDIS. Once inside, the TARDIS doors closed behind her, and she recognized the sound of the engines moving.

“What…”

“She’s following her protocols,” the Doctor explained. “She’s moving us to the Time Vortex. We’ll be safe there.” Sweat glistened on his forehead.

“Okay,” Martha replied.

The Time Lord passed out soon after that.

 

* * *

 

He woke up a few hours later, still on the floor, but covered with a blanket and his head on a pillow. Opening his eyes, he saw an intravenous bag set up above him. He hurt all over, but most of the pain was coming from his left leg.

Martha appeared beside him then. "Hi. Want to tell me how you're feeling?"

"Uh... Sore." He tried to shift and winced instead. "How bad is it?"

Well,” she started, settling down next to him, “you may be sore for awhile, but I think you’ll live.” She smiled at him and began checking his vitals as she continued speaking. “You may have a little headache for awhile, but you don’t have a concussion. None of your ribs feel broken, but I think you may have cracked three. You got kicked in the stomach a few times, so I’ve been watching you for any signs of internal bleeding, but so far I haven’t seen any. And, your left leg,” she indicated the limb with a free hand, “has a badly sprained ankle and a knife wound in the thigh. I bandaged the ankle for support, although I doubt you’ll be putting much weight on that leg anytime for a while. The thigh wound bled quite a bit, but thanks to your twisting maneuvers on the warehouse floor, you managed to avoid hitting anything important; just fatty tissue, mostly. After the bleeding stopped, I put some stitches in before bandaging it.”

He sighed, taking in the medical report she had given. He indicated the tubing in his right hand, “Where’d you get this?”

“Oh! I found a bunch of medical supplies in a storage room,” she confessed, excitedly. “Finding the IV equipment was a pleasant surprise, and you’ve definitely been benefiting from the extra fluids. The bag’s almost done; I’ll disconnect it in a minute. Did you want anything? Water?”

“No,” he shook his head. “Although, it is a bit uncomfortable on the floor. Mind helping me up to the jump seat?”

“Of course! Sorry about the floor, I couldn’t carry you and had to leave you where I put you.” She helped him remove the blanket, then went ahead and disconnected the IV tubing and port from his hand. He sat up with her assistance.

“Let’s do this slow, okay?” She put one arm under his while he got ready to push himself up with his hands. “One… Two… Three.” Together, they slowly stood. He balanced on his one good leg while she changed her grip, then they worked together to get him onto the jump seat.

He settled into the seat with relief. Being up off the ground felt good, but his leg definitely was hurting. Knowing this, Martha helped him elevate his injured leg up onto the seat with him. Finally, she grabbed the discarded blanket and laid his leg and lap, tucking the ends around his waist. “There. How’s that?”

He smiled. “Much better, thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

He closed his eyes briefly before he realized she was still standing there waiting for something. He opened them and looked at her.

She hesitated.

“Martha?”

“I’m just wondering… If the Akafarians have the ability to manipulate you into telling them what they want, why didn’t they do that to find out how to open the TARDIS instead of torturing you like they did?”

“They tried, before they brought me to the warehouse. Once I knew what they were trying to do to me, it was easier to detect and resist. I’m not sure why that was, but I imagine that can work differently for every species. Similarly, when we were talking to that old man in the museum, I was very well under his control; but once you brought my attention to something being off, it was easier to resist."

“The place seemed so innocent. I mean, their museums appear so successful, it’s hard to fathom that they would willingly go to such lengths to acquire such things.”

“Their museums are _highly_ successful and popular in this part of the galaxy, and we _will_ be stopping by the local galaxy law enforcement to make a report.”

“Good; because what they did to you was sickening. I’d hate for anyone else to have to be hurt like that, especially for greed.”

He grimaced at the memory. “They won’t be in business for very much longer anyway. According to their history, something occurred that caused them to close their doors and relinquish their goods.”

“Perhaps this was the triggering event.”

“Yes, perhaps. And, I’m so sorry you had to watch any of that take place. And, uh… thank you, for the distraction, by the way.”

“You should thank the TARDIS, as well. She provided me with the telephone number of the museum, and I decided to call in a bomb threat to the warehouse we were in, hoping that would get rid on people. For the most part, it worked. I’m just sorry I wasn’t fast enough to do anything about the guy stabbing you.”

“Well, thanks to your fine doctor skills, I’m still alive. Although, if I were dying, I probably would have regenerated; but that’s another topic for another day. I think a cup of tea is in order, don’t you? I hear there’s a planet where they serve tea all day long! Now, _that_ planet sounds like a great place to recuperate! Don’t you think?” the Doctor asked her, smiling like he always did when he thought he had a clever idea.

“Tea sounds _amazing_ ,” agreed Martha.

 

THE END


End file.
